Tony Abbott - cycling Prime Minister

sourced from www.news.com.au

I have been quite for the past to months because cycling wise it has been very busy with inquiries and community reference groups, oh and that we just had a Federal Election. This means a new Prime Minister (PM)

In the Last 10 years we have had a
- walking PM
- talking PM
- knitting PM
- and now a cycling PM
I have found it interesting that some that ride bikes ask the question now that we have a cycling PM will it increase the public profile of cycling and increased riding. Personally I think it will do very little but to continue to reinforce the stereotype and personally it is a stereotype that I am sick to death of being labelled with. This was also reinforced in the now PM elect's own opening election ad 5 weeks ago!

This continued stereotype will just mean more people will think as riding as a sporting activity that needs to change. Unfortunately this will not change if the only time we see the new PM on a bike is when he is in Lycra!

PS also lets hope when he does wear lycra he makes some smart decisions because we do not want a repeat of the Polish cycling team from the new PM.

BCC Elections - Greens

OK so I have not been that lazy when it comes to the the Greens and what they would do for cycling in Brisbane as the policy document was only released yesterday. Unlike the Liberals and Labor instead of releasing it in a separate document it has been released in an over arching document on Transport. While to some people this can be seen as a let down and a dismissal of the importance of cycling it can also show the opposite. In this case it is the opposite. Instead of placing cycling at the end of the document cycling is the very first thing showing to me that the party gets how important cycling can be and that cycling is part of an integrated transport policy.

Instead of putting out a funding goal the party seams to of put out some key goals/ target areas

• Build it and they will come - the importance of cycle infrastructure
• Provide cycle lanes on every CBD street
• Make Connections
• More Pedestrian-Cycle Bridges
• Floating Walkway
• North Brisbane

These are all very encouraging and are somehow more appealing to me then just making funding announcements so I will break each down

Build it and they will come - the importance of cycle infrastructure.
There is a lot of truth to this phrase, which is why when we keep building roads, they keep filling with traffic. People will tend to use what’s easiest and cheapest, and if one transport mode becomes easier, quicker, or cheaper, they tend to move to that.

With this one the policy through the use of Qld Transport diagrams shows that as more cycling infrastructure has been installed more people have begun to ride as a form of transport not as recreation. This is a key outliner as it breaks the stereotype that the only people using the bikeways are people out for there morning ride not ones going to work

Provide cycle lanes on every CBD street (or every major street) in the inner city. Where possible, these should be separated from traffic by concrete kerbing, regular posts, or parked cars. On one-way streets, contra-flow lanes should be provided so people don’t have to ride the long way around. BCC's solution of painting a bike on the road and calling it a Bicycle Awareness Zone (BAZ) is a cheap cop out which is not good enough.

A major barrier to riding a bike in Brisbane is the fact that the CBD traffic flow back in the 60s/70s was redesigned as a thoroughfare. While sometimes this can be an asset to some cyclists it can be a major hindrances to people less comfortable in heavy traffic. While Not every street in the CBD needs a Bike lane there certainly needs to be some. From what this Paragraph is describing I would say what is being proposed is similar to what we currently have on George St (or in Sydney CBD). This separated on road bike lanes were installed 3 years ago and back then it was said to be extended down George towards the Parliament. we are still waiting. These kind of Bikelanes have been doing wonders in Sydney in getting people on there bikes (i have seen it with my own eyes no matter what Allan jones say) and I am sure they would do the same in Brisbane.

Make Connections. A great cycle path is next to useless if it doesn’t connect to other cycle lanes. The Greens promise to complete the network.

This one is dead right. Many paths in Brisbane finish short of a destination leaving one wondering why on earth the path was ever built in the first place.

More Pedestrian-Cycle Bridges will provide connections to and around the inner-city where a lot of the easily cycelable 3-5km journeys are. It would surmount the significant barrier that the river presents.
In particular, options to examine would be: West End – St Lucia (continue along Boundary St), West End – Toowong, Eagle Street – Kangaroo Point, Kangaroo Point – New Farm, New Farm – Hawthorn, Newstead – Bulimba

The river is a great asset in Brisbane as it has allowed quite pockets to develop but it can be a major barrier. Many parts of Brisbane are extremely hilly and while this is not a barrier to a car it is to someone that has been forced to ride on the footpath cause they can not travel to traffic speed and have been harassed by beeping motorists. Pedestrian / Cycle Bridges add to a suburb without adding traffic by making it more accessible to all without the traffic noise, pollution and rat running that begins with a simple road bridge. My pick of this bunch would be Newstead-Bulimba or Hawthorn - New Farm as it allows the people of Bulimba/Hawthrone a fast ride into the city on a reasonably flat route.

Floating Walkway
Since this was washed away in floods, it has cut an important connection for recreation and commuting for walkers, joggers and cyclists. It is going to be replaced, but work won’t start until 2013 and won’t be finished until 2014. This is much slower than some other flood-damaged infrastructure.
The replacement will not float, which means it will be more structurally sound, and will cost $70 million. This is a lot less than roads, and it was (and will be) used by people from across the city – not just locals from New Farm.

I have to say I have wanted this back as soon as it floated away. A commitment to a fixed structure is also showing sound structural reasoning instead of poltics in my mind. The floating was terrible to use and a disaster to maintain.

North Brisbane
North Brisbane lacks useful links to the city, which is why the above maps lack significant riding from that part of town. Labor have announced their intention to build the North Brisbane Cycleway, which the Greens have long been calling for. This will link the city to the north via Victoria Park, under Bowen Bridge Road and through the Ekka site.

Please oh please oh please. Without me repeating myself again I welcome this.

Like before the links are below for further information

http://qld.greens.org.au/content/greens-transport-vision-brisbane-fewer-cars-less-pollution-and-more-choice
http://qld.greens.org.au/system/files/private/Transport%20Backgrounder.pdf

BCC Elections - Labor

OK so I have been lazy. The Labor Lord Mayoral Candidate released his cycling policy last Wednesday and I have left it until now to post something about. Part of this has been due to laziness that other part has been due to not knowing what I thought of it.

Unlike the Liberal policy it does list some detail. This detail is both helpful and perplexing.
The first promise that I am most encouraged by is the

$10 million invested in constructing the missing link connecting the Northern

Bikeway,

As you would be aware from a previous post I am strongly for the construction of a Northern Bikeway that would like the CBD to the north, but what exactly is he talking about when he is referring to the missing link?

and then there is this

Identify key cycling routes within a 5km radius of the CBD and construct cycling

infrastructure that will support and enhance the use of the CityCycle Scheme.

 While this is encouraging the fact is most of these are already known just not being built on.

What is also good is

$500,000 to build a separated bikeway at Stanley Street Woolloongabba (near the

Chalk Hotel),

If what they are talking about is similar to what is being built in Sydney it would be used. Currently there is many people coming inbound on Stanley what they do outbound I have no idea as the street is one way.

Now for what I am not that most impressed by

$3 million for the Kedron Brook Bikeway underpass at Shaw Rd Wavell Heights,

While the truth is I do not know how many people use this crossing but for the cost of it I think a area that needs a safe underpass is the Norman Creek Bikeway at Stones Corner where is crosses Logan Road. This crossing would cost far less as there is the potential to use the existing bridge structure and give kids the chance to ride right to there school with no road crossings.

$2 million for the missing link of the Kedron Brook bikeway at Stafford,

 This I can only assume is referring to where there is a short on road section. I am not quite sure why this is so pressing. This road is generally very quite and not that full of twits. Honestly I don't think this is needed and funds could be better spent in other places. If safety is a concern the installation of long travel speed bumps would reduce vehicle speeds and benefit not just cyclists but the residents of the street by making it safer.

I have to say another thing that I am not impressed with is the fact that the next sections of the Bicentennial Bikeway Upgrades are not included. There are still two final sections of upgrades needed but there has been no mention of it in the policy. With this being the busiest active transport corridor in the State this is a pretty big thing to leave out especially when the upgrade has been needed for over ten years.
For a post I though would be not that long it got a bit of length to it quite quickly. For more info see the link below and make up your own mind.

http://raysmith.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Better-Brisbane-Bikeways.pdf

BCC Elections - Liberal Party

The fist thing to say is that I have been surprised. I was honestly expecting something less than a promise of $100 Million over the 4 years. I was expecting something along the lines "we have done the hard stuff so we don't need to spend as much" by line. I was vaguely thinking that it may meet the previous $100 million.

So what has been promised, well an impressive $120 over the 4 year term. Now this is better then I had been expecting from a party that generally decrees that all cyclists are either hippies or weekend lycra warriors. As for the policy well there is not much detail. They claim that it has been full costed but for a fully costed policy there is precious little detail being disclosed. The most encouraging thing is that they say that the paths will be designed for commuter traffic not recreational users. This hopefully means no more windy paths that take twice the distance that is required to travel through a small park etc. The only thing I have against it is that it claims there is 1100kms of Bikeways. There is NOT 1100 kms of bikeways but 1100km of bikeways & bikelanes. This is a very important part because some bike lanes are suicidal as they are hard up against parked cars and if someone was to open there door a cyclist would hit it hard.

There is no detail on how this funding will be directed as in bikelanes or bikeways.  Nor is there details on where the corridors will be exactly either but they have identified 8 key areas

So in short

• $120 million over 4 years for bicycle infrastructure
• a focus on providing Commuter corridors to 8 key employment areas

For now until I find some more detail I will leave it at that

For you to have a chance of looking at the "Lite" Policy
http://www.teamquirk.com.au/category/news/

BCC elections - 2 weeks out

So the State Elections are done and dusted but we are still going for the Council Elections. So far not a single policy from either major party on what they will do improve cycling access in the city. It is times like this that make me nervous with regard to cycling. No policy means no real commitment that either winner can be held to account to after the election. So what have we heard so far and I warn you this will be brief.

Labor
Well like I said nothing. I was able to corner the lord mayor candidate one day on the street when he was doing the whole meet and greet thing. He said he had been speaking to cycling groups such as BQ and the CBD BUG. While he was not willing to give any details at the time he said that the cycling demographic would be quite happy with his policy proposal. I have to say this has no meaning until we have the policy in front of us and the details. Apart from this there is the fact that he has been whinging on about Citycycle has been a failure (this I will address in a future post) this point I do not agree with. He said he will see if the cictycycle contract can be reexamined.

Liberal
First thing unlike the Labor candidate I have not yet been able to grab the liberal bloke in person. So far there has been nothing. That is apart from him rabbiting on about how the Liberal Party in the last term installed Citycycle and has spent $100 million on cycling infrastructure and related works. Now the first thing is this $100 million has to be taken with a grain (or should I say a table spoon) of salt. This $100 million was not all council funds such as on the Bicentennial Bikeway upgrade. This was a 50/50 split between council and state but council has still included state funds under the $100 million because the money was granted to them.
This means if you take away the 50/50 split over the Bicentennial the $100 Million is already down to $90 million. I am still waiting on BQ to give its audit of how and if $100 million was spent and how much was out of it's own coffers.

Greens
The greens have been very quite so far. At the last election they promised $40 million each year over the 4 year term. That would of equalled $160 million. That said back then environmental and sustainable issues were very much in the publics eye so far nothing. Lets just hope this time they make a similar high figure to drag the major parties up to a decent figure.

Australian Sex Party
Now some may think I am joking but this is completely real. Now I would like to first say I have heard the founder of this party on ABC Local Conversations program and she is a completely switched on individual and short of reading everything on there party I agree with the premise. That said so far I have not heard anything from them regarding cycling.

for more information here are the websites
http://raysmith.com.au/
http://www.teamquirk.com.au/
http://qld.greens.org.au/
http://www.australiansexparty.org.au/